Coping with Teacher Training days

[bacon]

I'm new to education, DS1 in reception DS2 19 months old. But this is really going to get right up my nose. Teacher training days tagged onto half terms. 1st one Friday just before the weeks break.

How do mums cope? Ive got something planned - booked months and months ago and have to leave really early and now just checked diary and DS1 is home and I'm paying for DS2 to be in nursery!

Why cant they do these training days in the evenings or even Saturday morning like the rest of us? Why has education have to be so disrupted? Surely with the number of weeks off they get it wouldnt be too much to expect a few days to be put towards training?

Struth, we are self employed here, hubby never hardly gets time off, when we were farming we worked well unto the night, expected to get up at the crack of dawn, 7 days a week, working when completely exhausted and so hanging and no paid holidays!

So many families are struggling with childcare, trying to hold onto their jobs, and then this is slapped in our faces.

Surely this doesnt happen on the continent??

That is unreasonable, schools should declare inset days by September.

piscesmoon, they don't put them on the webiste of the infant or the junior school.

I knew there was likely to be a teacher training day on the Thursday as well as the Friday because I'd been to a PTA meeting, and and the head had mentioned it. However, it was not declared to parents until a couple of weeks before. It wasn't a problem for me, but would have been for a friend of mine. She was grateful for the tip off.

Then the answer is to get schools to publish the dates well in advance then. Rather than remove 5 days from school holidays. Which would be taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

We publish ours on the website in the summer term and send a list home with all pupils and copies to new parents on induction days for all the following year's dates. The LA has to be informed in advance so the information can be obtained from them

School children are in school for 190 days

When they are not in school it is their parents' job to organise their care

I agree that more could be done to provide local, organised, childcare

I still do not understand why anyone thinks that this is the job of any particular school

And provide holiday childcare as well as as before/after school care. Oh, things would be great in my dream world.

I would complain then Lynette-they should know well in advance.
Before/after school care is very new-it wasn't there when I needed it. People don't realise how lucky they are these days! There were no after school clubs at the school.
I agree with Talker and a lot more could be done to provide local, organised, childcare but it isn't the job of the school.
The schools are there to provide an education-they are not babysitters! You have to either come to an arrangement with family or friends or pay someone.

'But it isn't expecting other people to organise things for you.'

Don't really get this attitude. What is wrong with suggesting that a school or outside agency or LEA organises things for the benefit of its pupils and parents. Isn't that what they're for? And this would be a service which is paid for like any other.

I spend my whole life organising things for others from trips to homework diaries to extracurricular activities. It is my job. Should I tell parents it's all their responsibility? With this attitude it is a wonder that we're not all sitting at home doing everything on our own from home education to health.

We all rely on others' expertise and on the power of organising things collectively and we pay for this either directly or through our taxes.

'really, fivecandles, your whole argument is very specific to families where both parents teach.'

This is not true at all. We are lucky that dp in that every other holiday is covered. In most jobs you get 3 weeks holiday A YEAR. I would resent it much more if I had to take off 5 days randomly of only 3 weeks.

'I actually think it's pretty irresponsible to take your own dcs to work, but then mine are only 4 so maybe I'll feel differently when they're older. Refusing to take time off even though it's perfectly legitimate is YOUR choice and, in my opinion, totally invalidates your other arguments and pleas for sympathy that there is no one to help you.'

I have already explained my reasons for not wanting to take time off work. Several times in fact. For every person who accuses me of being irresponsible for taking my children into work with me there would be at quite a few more accusing me of being irresponsible for not going into work at all. Your arguments are hostile and deeply lacking in compassion. It does amaze me how working mothers are often the most critical and unpleasant to other working mothers when you might expect them to show understanding.

Of course schools arrange trips, homework diaries or anything to do with the children, but it simply isn't their job to arrange childcare for parents. Parents are much luckier these days than they were even a few years ago and they don't seem to realise it!
If you want to organise cover for INSET days then I'm sure you can hold a meeting with other parents and organise something between you.
Teachers have exactly the same problems with their own childcare when their child's school holds an INSET day on a different day from their own. Schools are not babysitters-they are providing education-not free childcare.

But there are are hundreds of things I do every day that are not strictly in my job description - like trips. I don't understand this jobsworth attitude at all and I'm grateful that most schools and teachers don't share it. What benefits the parents and children of the school benefits the school.

And I have said many times that the school does not necessarily have to provide the servcie themselves, they could employ an outside agency to do it.

Or it could be up to the LEA. I linked to Newham earlier which manages to provide holiday clubs which run during INSET days for the whole LEA. It is not impossible.

Schools are the hub of any local community. Why shouldn't they and we recognize this? It makes logistic and economic sense to use the buildings for all sorts of things - childcare during INSET days and holiday clubs being just one of them.

Here's a link about the impact of long holidays on children BTW:

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7418899.stm

It has been mentioned over and over again. However, most seem to ignore some facts.

1- inset days are essentially holidays that just happen to fall within the school terms. So, would you expect the school to sort out care for your child during the summer holidays for example?

2- So, IF schools sorted out care for everyone on that inset day, has anyone considered how much that would cost the school. Yes, it would cost the school. How? Well, someone would have to organise this venture. On average a primary school has 200+ children. So, even if a company is hired in to care for this number of children, there needs to be someone who gets the company, sends out the letters, coordinates the times, sorts out the space, make sure they are insured, crb checked, etc. More than likely, it would take more than one person. (And.... btw... there are not that many companies that would even do this.) Where does this money come from to pay for this time, from the school budget. If it is a member of staff already, that is taking them away from the job they were paid to do.

3- Schools are damned if they do, damned if they don't. I am fed of with hearing whinging parents on the playground who...1- don't READ the letters that are sent home by hard copy and email and then posted on thee school's website and 2- who think schools are more than what they are. They are places to EDUCATE your child for 190 days a year. The rest of the days, they are YOUR responsibility. That is part of being a PARENT! Sure you work, many of us do. But, when we became parents the child was our responsibility not the school or the government.

4- My son's school does a mixture of inset days connected to holidays and those in the middle of a week. No matter WHEN they have them, parents complain. Some want them attached to holidays so they can easily send them off to grandparents for a few days and some want them in the middle of the week because it is easier for them to take off. Round and round it goes.

My solution? Maybe the 5 days should just be attached to the end or beginning of a school year and parents will see it for what it is.... holiday time.

You are muddling up 2 things. Schools are open so many days a year between certain hours and teachers are employed within those hours to educate the DCs.(they put in many more hours but that it dierectly for the education of the DCs, in the way of planning, preparation,out of school trips,metting, parent's evenings etc etc) If you need childcare around those times then it is your responsibility.
It is a fairly new thing to have after school clubs in the school, they certainly were not there when I needed them-not many years ago.
It seems to me that people want a much longer school year so that they don't have the inconvenience of cover, they want the cover at school, they would like holiday clubs arranged by the school that the parent signs up for at school (preferably free)and they want babysitting arranged by the school for all extras e.g. INSET days and parent's evenings. The school is supposed to take it all on! I didn't go into teaching to be a babysitter.
t seems that DCs are just a general inconvenience!
I don't care what surveys they come up with-nothing as a DC beat the feeling of having weeks of holiday stretching so far into the distance that you didn't have to think of school and you had the prospect of doing nothing. I love it as a parent-you get off all the timetabling and the treadmill. DCs need the break and so do teachers-they all get tired, irritable and jaded by the end of a term. They all need to recharge batteries and come back refreshed and keen.
Schools have always been the centre of the community and they have never been babysitters. After school clubs are in the building but separate-they are not school run. You will get it all at boarding school but they have even longer holidays to compensate.
If you have a child they are going to inconvienience you!

'They are places to EDUCATE your child for 190 days a year. The rest of the days, they are YOUR responsibility. That is part of being a PARENT'

Well said-perhaps that should be posted on school gates!

'inset days are essentially holidays that just happen to fall within the school terms. So, would you expect the school to sort out care for your child during the summer holidays for example?'

Think you're somewhat missing the point MM5. During the holidays there is usually organised childcare available. During 5 randomly plonked INSET days which vary from school to school such that you might have 2 or more children with different INSET days, there is typically no organised childcare available.

Nobody is expecting the school 'to sort out care for your child'. But it would be good if there were some sort of childcare available. It would make economic and logisistic sense for such care to be available at the school whether or not the school actually organises it.

FGS, how many times?

How is any less responsible for you to send your child to out of school care than it is to send your child to a childminder or friend?

Either way you are using childcare because you are at work. That doesn't make you an irresponsible parent.

In fact, it is a sign of RESPONSIBILITY that you want your child to be looked after by people who are trained and equipped to do that.

It is a sign of your responsbility that you are at work earning a living to support your child.

It would be irresponsible to leave your child with someone not suited to that task.

It is also a sign of responsibility to be concerned for OTHER parents and OTHER children rather than just looking out for you and yours.

"Nobody is expecting the school 'to sort out care for your child'. But it would be good if there were some sort of childcare available. It would make economic and logisistic sense for such care to be available at the school whether or not the school actually organises it."

Ok... so who will organise it? I can tell you this much, schools don't have the time or money to do this.

Are you volunteering?

MM5, I don't think you've read many of the posts here.

Many schools or LEAs currently provide or pay an agency to provide before school and after school and holiday clubs. Parents pay for this and people are employed to do the work.

This means parents can get to work on time feeling confident their children are being looked after.

The children are well looked after.

People are employed to look after the children.

Everyone's a winner. In principle why should the same provision not be made during INSET days?

'I can tell you this much, schools don't have the time or money to do this'

Yet, most manage to successfully organise or pay another agency to organise holiday clubs and before or after school clubs in recognition of the advantages of such services to its children, parents and the school.

I don't think anybody is suggesting that holidays are banned pisces!! Perhaps just that 6 weeks is a little too long for one holiday and particularly disadvantages children from already disadvantaged backgrounds. There is a suggestion that this might be broken up throughout the year so there are 2 week half-terms for example. This might help parents take holidays then more cheaply. Currently something like 4/10 parents take their children on holiday during term time.

Oh, I have read the thread.... took a few days, but I got through it.

I KNOW what LEAs provide. I have been there, done that and have the t-shirt. So, go to the LEA to sort it out NOT the school.

BTW... who do you think REALLY sorts out all these activities for your children? Who do you think they employee to care for your children before school and after school?

'Schools have always been the centre of the community and they have never been babysitters. After school clubs are in the building but separate-they are not school run.'

Yes and what makes you think that an out of school provision during INSET days would be any different? Don't understand this at all.

Saying that there could be out of school care for children during INSET is not suggesting that schools are babysitters whatever that might mean. It simply means providing out of school care in school buildings because that's logical.